


Post Hoc, Ergo Proctor Hoc

by RoseClover



Series: Evidence of Things not Seen [2]
Category: Captain America (2011), The Avengers (2012), Thor (2011)
Genre: Established Relationship, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-12
Updated: 2012-09-12
Packaged: 2017-11-14 02:20:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,150
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/510283
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoseClover/pseuds/RoseClover
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Darcy gets injured and Steve blames himself.  Darcy has to think of a way to show him it's not his fault.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Post Hoc, Ergo Proctor Hoc

Darcy awoke to the rather too familiar sight of the SHIELD medical facility. However instead of looking down at Steve’s battered face she was looking up into his worried one.

She tried to sit up and see what was causing Steve so much concern. His broad hands shot out and anchored her shoulders to the bed, but not before pain speared through her head. Finally focused on her own condition rather than their reversed positions she took a mental stocktake. Her head hurt the most but it was far from the only pain. Her ribs ached dully and her left hand and ankle hurt when she attempted to move them.

“What happened?” Stocktake completed she turned her focus back to Steve. While his face was set in what she called his ‘concerned Cap’ face she could see the naked terror in his eyes. His left hand moved from her shoulder to her cheek and the other hand changed from restraining to caressing. 

“You got hurt.”

“I gathered that from the pain and our location solider boy, what I’m more interested in is how I got hurt.” Darcy instinctively nuzzled into Steve’s hand.

“You got hurt.” Steve repeated then softly added “and I wasn’t there.” Before Darcy could respond another voice answered her question. 

“At the moment it looks like a failed targeted kidnapping. What’s the last thing you remember?” Darcy turned her head to look at Natasha who was moving from the wall to stand next to Steve, looking down at Darcy. As she walked she moved from observation to work mode.

“I was doing the junk food run to the corner store. Jane was out of pop-tarts and I was out of chocolate. I don’t remember much after that.”

“Three men attacked you as you passed a side street where they were waiting. From the footage it looks like you punched one of them, tasered the other before the third clubbed you on the back of your head. The taser alerted us and Thor arrived just as they were manhandling you into a car.”

The taser had been a Christmas gift from Tony. He had presented it to her with a childish glee. Not only did it contain state of the art Stark taser tech whenever Darcy used it, it acted as a panic button and alerted JARVIS.

“What happened to the men?”

“One died.” Said Natasha bluntly, “One escaped and the last is in custody. When he awakes I’m going to have a nice chat with him.” 

Darcy felt Steve’s hands tighten before he started to speak. “As team leader I feel...” he trailed off as Natasha gave him her ‘we’ve already had this conversation and I’ve won’ look.

“Anyways,” Natasha continued her silent conversation “He’s out cold. Won’t be awake for a few days the docs think. Thor’s fist to your skull will do that to you. I’ll leave you alone now. You’ll have to write a report as soon as you’re well enough Darcy.” 

With that she turned on her heel and walked out of the room, still firmly in work mode. With Natasha gone Darcy returned her attention to Steve who still looked terrified and somewhat like a kicked puppy.

“Steve, it’s ok, I’m ok.” She moved her right hand to cover his patting it before linking their fingers together. “Although I assume there’s a good reason why no-one has shown me a mirror. My looks must be appalling and my fragile self esteem would shatter.”

Steve grinned, which was the whole point of the exercise, and leant forward and kissed her tenderly on the forehead. “You always look beautiful to me.” But the sad look was still in his eyes. 

The next week was nice as she rested in bed and Steve waited on her hand and food and was generally sweet and adorable. By day 8 however she was getting sick of the coddling. She would like to be able to walk from their room to the sitting room by herself instead of getting thoroughly scolded. More worrying was the constant surveillance and panic in his eyes. 

In her post incident debrief with Natasha Darcy watched the footage of the attack. A couple of teenagers had been across the road and when they saw an attempted mugging they whipped out their camera phones. That's Gen Y for you. Darcy had remembered much more of the incident over the past week but the details were still fuzzy in her brain. 

She was used to watching and deconstructing incident videos but she couldn't separate herself from this one, couldn't look at it like it was any other agent or asset. She winced as she watched the small screen version of herself punching the first attacker and rubbed her still bruised knuckles. All the time she was watching she was aware of Natasha watching her. Natasha would have seen the video close to a hundred times by now, looking for clues or other information, now she watched for Darcy's responses. 

When the video ended Darcy looked down at her hands, not yet ready to meet the super spy's gaze. "I didn't realise how different it would be when it was you on the video. I thought it was hard when it was those you loved but this ..." she trailed off, not sure how to express her feelings.

"You did very well Darcy. Your response time was good and you immediately utilised your self-defence training. You took down two of the guys."

"You would have taken them all down." Darcy interrupted, snapping her head up to finally meet the other woman's gaze. "You would have taken them all down and not got a single scratch. All I managed was one punch and a taser shot before I got completely knocked out."

"You're not me Darcy, I have a very, unique, skill set. You don't have my years of training, or my modifications, something for which you should be grateful." Darcy blushed at this oblique mention of the Red Room. "You defended yourself long enough to get a warning to the team. These guys were good, not the best in their field, but they were professionals. You can't expect yourself to be able to do what I can do, what Tony can do what, Steve can do." Natasha didn't miss the slight wince when she mentioned Steve's name. "But this doubt, it's not about you is it? It's about Steve."

Darcy looked stunned at Natasha. "How did you ... stupid secret spy special knowledge." She muttered the last phrase and then fell silent. Natasha just sat watching letting the silence hold court until Darcy spoke again. "He blames himself, no he blames us, well he blames himself and us. I can see him beating himself up because he wasn't the one to save me. He thinks he shouldn't have let me outside without an 'escort'. He hasn't even been letting me walk around by myself, even though Bruce says my ankle won't heal until I start to use it again." She stopped and worried her bottom lip with her teeth.

"Is that all?" Natasha asked

"Why do you ask questions you already know the answer to?"

"Interrogation technique."

Darcy quirked a smile at that response. "No it's more than just that ..." She trailed off again

"The Photograph?" Natasha suggested  
"The Photograph." Darcy confirmed. "I mean he hasn't said anything to me about it but I know it's about the Photograph."

The Photograph, spelt with a Capital P thank you very much, had been released by a gossip site two weeks previously. Darcy and Steve had been together for almost 8 months but had kept their relationship out of the media. Two months ago Steve had been giving an interview for daytime television when the interviewer surprised him with a question about his relationship status which had NOT been on the SHIELD approved list. Steve had muttered, gone red, and unable to lie had confessed he was in a relationship. He had steadfastly refused to give them any more information about her but the tabloids had gone crazy. 

Darcy had been somewhat amused by the random pairings the media had come up with. Black Widow had been the most popular choice with Agent Hill and Pepper coming in tied for second depending on the drama that the media wanted to portray. Bruce had come up surprisingly frequently but the creepiest award went to Fury. 

Darcy and Steve had been careful not to be seen together in public and it had all died down. Until two weeks ago when the Avengers and assorted others had a private dinner at an upscale restraint for Bruce’s birthday. Tony had hired the whole place out and everything had gone well. Steve and Darcy had been the last to leave and Steve had placed his hand on her waist as they started down the staircase and whispered in her ear. Add a (now unemployed) waiter and a camera phone and the inevitable happened. Darcy had the distinction of being on the front of every gossip magazine in the country. 

“Speaking professionally we will have to review your personal security as a result of this incident but as far as we’re concerned it came off a win. You’re not seriously hurt and we have a prisoner in custody who will be interrogated as soon as feasible. Speaking personally talk to Steve. He’s the kind of man”

It took Darcy a few days to figure out how to start the necessary but unpleasant conversation with Steve. He was a master at changing the conversation and avoiding all mention of the ‘incident.’ When brilliance struck she started to carefully arrange her plans.

“Steeve” she wheedled as they walked back to their room after breakfast “What are your plans for today?”

Steve stopped and looked at her before cautiously replying. “I haven’t any definite plans yet what were you thinking?”

“I was thinking of a TV in bed day.”

“Oh that sounds like fun.” Steve was obviously relieved that her plans had nothing to do with venturing outside.

“Yep I was thinking it has been far too long since I’ve done a West Wing marathon and I figured you’re probably able to cope with the pace and the politics now.”

“I don’t know whether to be flattered or insulted.”

“Whatever makes you happy.” Darcy tugged Steve the rest of the way into their quarters and within a few minutes they were snuggled in bed watching the series from the beginning. It was a sign of how far Steve had come that he didn’t so much as blanch when Laurie turned out to be a call girl. Darcy cued up the second episode straight away and waits with anticipation. The second the scene she’s been waiting for finishes she commands JARVIS to pause and turns and looks expectantly at Steve. He just stares back confused.

“Post hoc, ergo propter hoc” she states echoing President Bartlett. “After it, therefore because of it. It means one thing follows the other, therefore it was caused by the other, but it's not always true. In fact, it's hardly ever true. The Photograph didn’t necessarily cause the kidnapping Steve. They could have had information about our relationship from another source, they could have other motives. You can’t blame yourself, or me or the photograph.”

Steve looked at her before pulling her into his arms and burying his head in her hair. “ I was just so scared when the alert came through from the taser and frustrated that I couldn’t get their first to save you. It would kill me if you got hurt or died because of me, because of us.” Darcy was almost sure she could feel tears on her shoulder.

“I know and that makes you a good man and an amazing boyfriend, but I refuse to live in fear. We’ll take steps to protect me, like Pepper and Jane, and we’ll move on with what we do, with us. Besides if there’s one thing we’ve learnt from the movies pretending you don’t care and pushing the girl away only makes it easier for her to be kidnapped and used against the hero.”

“I know” Steve muffled before changing positions to pull Darcy between his legs and against his chest. “But I couldn’t get my brain to stop thinking it. You know I love you right?” Darcy turned her head to kiss him softly before answering “I know. And I love you too.”

They continued on watching the show but Darcy could feel the tension that had been building for weeks leaking out of his muscles. She grinned smugly to herself and settled in for the ride. 

 

Two days later Clint drops a report from Natasha on her desk. The conclusion simply said “Captive has revealed that Ms Lewis was targeted for her SHIELD information and clearances not personal relationships.” Darcy just smiled.

**Author's Note:**

> The scene from the West Wing Episode 'Post Hoc, Ergo Proper Hoc' that I refer to can be seen http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL_vHDjG5Wk
> 
> This is a short piece that happens in a larger head-cannon verse where Darcy is an intelligence analyst at SHIELD. However my brain refuses to function in a linear pattern and this story came pretty much complete to me on day so I had to write it.


End file.
